


if a reason is what you're looking for (i'll be yours)

by weddingbells



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Drunken Mistakes, Enemies to Friends, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Las Vegas, M/M, Marriage, falling in love by accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 06:12:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4510881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weddingbells/pseuds/weddingbells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam though, the bastard, just fixes the stupid hat he is wearing and swallows another giggle.<br/>"You got married! Last night. I believe one of you decided it was Vegas tradition and now here we are."<br/>“We did not fucking get married.” Louis deadpans and stares from Liam to Nick. “I did not fucking marry that!”<br/>Nick glares back at Louis.<br/>“And I did not marry him. I have standards, unlike others.”<br/>“Go fuck yourself.” Louis flips him off, but he is also feeling panic rise in his body because what the fuck happened last night and what did they do and if they are naked did he seriously have sex with Nick fucking Grimshaw? And married him?</p><p> </p><p>Louis is in Vegas. When he wakes up he isn’t alone in his bed. And apparently not single either. Thank god annulments are an easy thing to get. Well, that is until your management decides you can’t get one but have to pretend that the whole thing wasn’t a drunken mistake but in fact, an act of love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if a reason is what you're looking for (i'll be yours)

**Author's Note:**

> okay so I post a lot of fics probably and I love writing tshaw but I seriously LOVED writing this and I really really hope you will all like it and I hope that you will enjoy it and please leave comments, feedback, ANYTHING. thank you x I want to say a huge thank you to Sie for helping me with editing and proof reading and just general giving this fic a better shape than it would have been, and to everyone who has been encouraging and cheering me on in writing I LOVE YOU ALL x Well here we go, I hope you enjoy! x

Louis wakes up naked with a foul taste of booze and ash in his mouth and those are all of the receipts he needs to know that last night, probably, was a fucking _disaster_. He forces himself to attempt to open his eyes, but his eyes complain loudly at that. They blink in the sudden light, not at all ready to be exposed to something as painful as sunlight or lamplight or any kind of light, really, and Louis pities them. He lets them rest, keeping his eyes closed for a bit longer as he tries to remember what the _fuck_ he did last night or where he is. He grunts. He remembers Vegas. Remembers Liam winning some poker game, remembers Niall chatting up some waitress in heels as high as Louis must have been and Harry showing up with Nick Grimshaw and his hipster clique. _Gross_. Louis feels a bit queasy and the rest is blurry and he wonders if his eyes have had enough rest. He blinks again and yes, success.  


Success doesn't last long though because _ew_ , he fell asleep wearing his contacts, which is never a pleasant experience. He hopes that this room has eye drops.

 

He forces his body to move, rolling over until he ends up rolling straight into a wall of something hard and hairy and warm and it takes his hungover brain far too long to realise it’s a chest. Chest hair.

 

"Liam..." He mutters but then he looks up and no Liam isn't _that_ tall, not that lanky, not with this few tattoos and his quiff isn't... he doesn't have a...

 

"Bloody hell!" Louis screams, jumping up and rolling out of bed, tangling himself up in the blankets and still screaming as he falls to the floor. "Nick, what the fuck?!"

 

The ruckus seems to awaken his uninvited bed guest and Nick sits up, looking just as confused as Louis feels and he is just as naked as Louis is, but, unlike Louis, Nick isn't covered up and Louis gets a front seat view of a huge cock, half hard as if his morning wood is on its way and _god_.

 

"Cover yourself!" Louis shouts in panic, shutting his eyes close, which causes his contacts to irritate his eyes even more. "Or better, get the _fuck_ out. Why the hell are you in _my_ bed?"

 

 

"Louis, this is my room!" Nick yells back, and it is not, Louis is sure of it. This is his room. He might be hungover, maybe even still a bit drunk, and most likely about to be sick all over the floor, but he is sure that this is his room.

 

"Why the fuck would I be in your bed?!" Louis retorts, voice still loud. "Get out!"

 

"Excuse me!" Nick reaches over for a pillow to cover himself up. _Thank god_. It’s entirely too early for huge dicks. "Why the fuck would _I_ be in _yours_?!"

 

Louis is about to reply to that when he hears a door opening.  He looks over to see who could be coming into his room this early, and Liam walks in, grinning.

 

"Mooorning."

 

"Liam, tell Grimshaw to get the fuck out of my room." Louis hisses. Nick stares at him. Louis stares back. His contacts hurt like hell and his head is absolutely throbbing and he is _definitely_ going to be sick, but he won’t stop glaring.

 

"Tell Louis to get out of mine!" Nick says, breaking their eye contact to instead look to Liam who is apparently quite amused. "And to give my blanket back!" Nick adds, a small _hrmph!_ behind his voice.

 

" _My_ blanket!" Louis wails, clinging to the blanket as if it is his first born. "Because this is my fucking room!"

 

Liam starts laughing. It’s far too loud of a laugh, Louis thinks. _And why is Liam looking like he hasn’t had anything to drink at all last night?_ Unfair. If Louis is going to be this hungover he thinks it’s only fair that Liam is, too.

 

"Well, you’re not wrong.” He says pointedly to Nick.

 

Louis almost falls over. _The traitor_. Not only is he not hungover like Louis, but now is he also taking Nick’s side in all this? Louis is hurt. Nick looks smug though as he hears that. He stretches out on the bed, still covered with only the pillow, looking like he just one a million dollar on the slot machines.

 

"Thank you. Now get the fuck out of my room, Tomlinson."

 

Liam shakes his head. Now he is looking smug.

 

"I mean, technically, Tommo’s not wrong, either."

 

They both stare at him now.

 

" _What_?" They say as Liam laughs harder. Louis wants to punch him. Right now. If he wasn’t so very much in pain and very much tangled up in blankets he would get up and he would punchhim. Maybe even in the face.

 

"It’s _yours_!" Liam says between gasps for air. "You both got it to spend the night together." Liam winks. "Newlywedsdo often want that.”

 

Louis is really going to be sick. He feels his entire world spinning. He is going to be _sick_.

 

" _What?_ " Nick asks, sounding just as horrified as Louis feels. Liam though, the bastard, just fixes the stupid hat he is wearing and swallows another giggle.

 

"You got married! Last night. I believe one of you decided it was Vegas tradition and now here we are."

 

“We did not fucking get married.” Louis deadpans and stares from Liam to Nick. “I did not fucking marry _that_!”

 

Nick glares back at Louis.

 

“And I did not marry him. I have standards, unlike others.”

 

“Go fuck yourself.” Louis flips him off, but he is also feeling panic rise in his body because _what the fuck happened last night_ and _what did they do_ and _if they are naked did he seriously have sex with_ _Nick fucking Grimshaw? And married him?_

 

Oh god he is going to throw up all over this floor right now.

 

“Well, that’s not how I remember it.” Liam says with a smug smile, as if he is actually enjoying this, the absolute traitor-bastard-jerk. Louis is changing Liam’s name to that. He will start introducing him as “TraitorBastardJerk” at all of their shows. When they write music, he will sign it as L. Tomlinson and L. _I-am-a-fucking-jerk-who-doesn’t-deserve-my-best-friend_ Payne. “The way I remember it, you two got drunk as fuck, saw a chapel and…”

 

“What, just decided to marry each other?” Louis spits out. “That would never fucking happen! Stop trying to mess with us, Payno.”

 

“True that.” Nick mutters.

 

Liam keeps talking. “It _did_ though. You saw a chapel, and Louis, you said that Vegas wedding must be the best, because no unnecessary planning--”

 

“Lazy.” Nick murmurs from the bed. Louis stares at him.

 

“--And then Nick,” Liam continues, “you said that you still have to find someone that wants to marry you Louis, which must be so very difficult.”

 

Nick lets out a laugh, that sounds more like a bark than an actual laugh. “ _Hah_ , well that’s the truth.”

 

“And then, Louis said that it’s all just because you can’t handle him… and Nick, you took offense, asking if that is a challenge, and then you…”

 

“God, Liam, _stop_!” Louis shouts, hiding his face in the blanket he’s still clinging on to. He is going to be sick, he is really going to be sick.

 

“It’s true.” Liam is still looking smug. Louis hates him. He can’t believe his best friends let him do this. “I even have it on my phone, if you want to…”

 

“ _No!_ ” Louis and Nick cut him off in unison, warranting a stern glare between them.

 

“I think Harry’s got the paperwork, you signed it and gave it to him ‘for safekeeping.’” Liam pouts a bit. “Would’ve thought myself the first choice for that, but, whatever.”

 

“Liam, stop!” Nick rubs at his temples, as if it really hurts him to hear all this.

 

“Thank god divorce is a thing.” Louis says and Nick nods darkly.

 

“Thank god _annulments_ are a thing. My sober self _does_ have standards.”

 

“You’re such a fucking ass.” Louis says through gritted teeth.

 

“You’re an idiot.”

 

“Ah, true love.” Liam sighs.

 

He escapes when Louis throws a flower vase at him.

 

\--

 

_“People… people get married here.” Nick slurs, and Louis wonders how many drinks he’s had. Then again, it must take a lot to fill up that cartoonish body of his. Louis chuckles, leaning against Niall. “Everyone… everyone can get married.”_

 

_“Land of the free!” Louis chants, spilling half his beer over Niall. “Sorry, mate, sorry. Vegas wedding, so simple, easy… no planning…”_

 

_“Still gotta find someone to marry.” Nick arches an eyebrow, looking at Louis. “Which must be preeetty difficult for you Tomlinson, don’t you think?”_

 

_He drinks the last of his beer bottle as if to give himself a high five with it._

 

_“Fuck you.” Louis answers, Niall and Liam laughing beside him. “You’re… you’re just saying that because you couldn’t handle me.”_

 

_Nick arches an eyebrow. Harry is standing next to him and grinning, but Louis is only glaring at Nick now, doesn’t really notice anything else besides that._

 

_“You think I can’t handle being married to you.” The offense taken is clear in Nick’s voice._

 

_“Nope.” Louis says, looking very pleased. “Never in a million years.”_

 

_“I fucking could handle you! You’re so easy!” Nick shouts , half to Louis, half to anyone who might be listening in. He moves over, grabbing Louis’ arm which pulls a drunken giggle from Louis’ throat. “Is that a challenge?”_

 

_Louis smirks._

 

_“Gay marriage challenge.” He says, eyes daring._

 

_Nick pulls him with him. “Let’s get gay married right now, and I’ll prove it to you that I can handle you.”_

 

_“Never.” Louis giggles. “Never.”_

 

“Oh, god.” Louis is staring down into the biggest coffee mug he has ever seen. It’s really more of a pot of coffee honestly, and he intends to drink all of it right now. “I remember.”

 

“Remember what?” Nick stares at him from the other seat and Louis gives him an evil glare.

 

“What the fuck do you think I remember you idiot, why are we even in this situation? I remember us going into the chapel! God, you’re so… you drive me insane.” He lets out a frustrated groan before downing three big gulps of coffee. “I can’t believe you did this to me, this is the worst.”

 

“Excuse you,” Nick cuts in. “I think I am the victim here. I might not remember all of it, but I’m pretty sure that I am the victim.”

 

Louis’ head hurts too much to even argue.

 

“This is the worst thing to ever happen to me,” he complains instead. “I just want that divorce, annulment, whatever it is you call it, and I can maybe go back to forget this ever happened.”

 

“Same.” Nick says. They stare at each other.

 

“When would our teams meet up with us?” Louis asks, and Nick shrugs.

 

“As soon as we land, as soon as we can get over there. Believe me, my team will want this mess over with as soon as possible before someone might find out.”

 

“Oh, believe _me_.” Louis says, staring back at Nick. “It would be the worst thing for me if this _ever_ came out. I wouldn’t be able to go outside. Marrying you is the worst thing. It’s embarrassing. I would never be able to…”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Nick interrupts him, rolling his eyes as he finishes the last of his coffee. “Let’s just survive this flight with a bunch of friends who can’t stop laughing about this okay? Because I don’t want to end up being charged with murder as well.”

 

Louis nods.

 

He can understand that.

 

\--

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

Louis stares. He can’t believe that the man in front of him, whose name he has already forgotten, is sitting there saying _this_.

 

“Excuse me?!” he asks. “What do you mean _absolutely not_?”

 

“You are not getting a divorce. Or an annulment.” The man says, calmly looking through his papers. The man next to him is nodding as well, which makes Nick, who is sitting next to Louis and wearing sunglasses despite them being inside, tense up.

 

“What? This has to happen.” Nick says. “I am _not_ staying married to a spoiled popstar brat.”

 

“And I am not staying married to an old idiot who can’t do anything else but lose listeners.” Louis adds and Nick turns to him. Louis can’t see because of the sunglasses he is wearing, but he is pretty sure he is glaring at him. Louis doesn’t care. The men shakes their heads at the same time.

 

“No.”

 

“Why the fuck not?” Louis asks and his voice is way louder and far more high pitched than he had intended it to be. “We don’t want this, we can’t stay married. It was a mistake.”

 

"No." The man from Louis’ management says. "No more scandals. We have enough scandals with you this year. It has taken us a lot of energy, money, and bribes to be able to keep most of it under wraps. We are not doing another huge scandal now. Besides, _The Sun_ already has pictures of you two going into a chapel and they are going to release them. Seems to be someone across the street from the chapel got photos of you and all your friends. It’s all just a matter of what kind of story they will run with and _believe_ me.” He pauses and looks to Louis with judging eyes. “You getting drunk and high to the point where you had no idea what you were doing and ended up marrying Nick Grimshaw is _not_ what we want in that paper. No.”

 

“But that’s what happened!” Nick protests and for the first time ever Louis agrees with him.

“It’s what fucking happened. We got drunk, we got married, our idiot friends let us and now we are getting this _damn annulment_.”

 

“That’s not how we see it.” Nick’s management person says. “The way we see it, you two have for a long time been romantically involved, all in secret of course, and now in Vegas there was no stopping you from finally getting married. And now you are ready to tell the world.”

 

“We are not in fucking love!” Louis yells. “We can’t stand each other!”

 

“He drives me insane!” Nick agrees. “There’s no way this will work.”

 

The men both tap to the documents in front of them.

 

“You don’t have a choice.” Louis’ management speaks up. Louis thinks his name might be Steve. Mostly because it’s a stupid name, for a stupid person. “You are doing this, or you’ll be violating the terms of your management contracts.”

 

Nick’s lawyer speaks up. “And Nick, there’s a liability clause in your contract with _The X Factor_.”

 

Louis opens his mouth to protest again, but then he notices Nick getting pale next to him.

Louis stops.

 

“That’s not fair,” he says over Nick’s silence. “Everyone will see through this. We haven’t even seen each other for _years_. We know nothing about each other. This will never work.”

 

“Make it work.” Maybe-Steve says. “This is your job, and you better do it right. No more scandals. You got married, now tell the world about your love and maybe in about 6 months we can say you got divorced due to work conflicts, scheduling issues, missing each other too much -- something like that. We can work with that.”

 

“6 months.” Nick repeats. “You want us to pretend for 6 months that we are married and in love and…”

 

Louis is going to be sick again, he is _truly_ going to be sick.

 

“Yes.” Maybe-Steve looks to the man next to him and then puts a definitely fake smile on his lips. “It’s not that difficult. Come up with a nice story, have some fun. Everything will be great and we will get the media attention we want.”

 

“Fuck this.” Louis mutters under his breath. But there’s no use. He knows there isn’t.

He looks to Nick, and he is pretty sure Nick knows that, too.

 

“No other way?” Nick asks and the men shakes their head.

 

Louis is going to be sick.

 

\--

 

“So now we have to decide how I fell in love with you.”

 

Nick is sitting at the table in Harry’s kitchen, and Louis is sitting at the other end, hating every moment of this. They both have pen and paper in front of them, so that they can take notes. Louis can’t believe he is doing this, can’t believe he is taking notes on how he fell in love with Nick Grimshaw.

 

“Yes.” Louis says shortly. Harry is making tea, humming something pleasant to himself, and Louis wonders how he can be so calm about this.

 

“Difficult.” Nick says. “I don’t see how anyone could everfall in love with you.”

 

Louis wants to throw something at him.

 

“Well I don’t see how anyone could ever want to be with _you_ ,” he says. “You have stupid hair and you wake up at dumb hours.”

 

Nick’s hand clutch over his heart.

 

“Honey, that hurts.”

 

“Shut up.” Louis hisses, and then turns to his notepad. “Okay so… we fall in love… when…”

 

“Maybe you hooked up at The Brits.” Harry suggests from where he is fixing a tray with tea mugs. “And then it happened from there. Maybe you can use me. I mean, maybe I fixed you two up. Sounds like something I would do, doesn’t it?”

 

Louis stares but really, that’s as good as an idea as any so they better just go with it.

 

“So that means…” Nick says, thinking of the timeline. “That we have supposedly been together for…”

 

“Too many years.” Louis comments and Nick nods, scribbling something down on the paper.

 

“Did we meet each other’s families?” Nick asks and Louis quickly shakes his head.

 

“No, no we didn’t. That means we would have to bring them in on this and all my siblings would never be able to lie about this.”

 

“True.” Nick nods. “So we have been hiding from everyone but… Harry and… Liam and Niall and… Zayn, of course… maybe some of my friends…”

 

Louis nods and takes the tea mug that Harry offers him. He wishes it was vodka, he could use some.

 

“And our first date… I asked you out…” Louis says, writing it down without consulting the others.

 

Nick huffs. "No. I would ask you out first."

 

Louis looks up at him. “Why would you do that?”

 

“I would want to know more about you.” Nick says calmly. “Besides, I’ve been out for years, which means that it was probably easier for me to make a move.” He sips his own tea, then adds: “And I would take you to this restaurant that I know where you can eat late dinners and watch the moon, because that would give us peace and quiet from people and paps -- which I know you need. I would think about that.”

 

Louis stares at him. There is something about that that sounds nice, but he would never admit to that.

 

“Also, I would probably be ashamed to maybe accidentally be seen with you.” Nick throws in, ruining it and Louis throws a pen at him.

 

“God, I fucking hate your guts, Grimshaw.”

 

“Louis, calm down.” Harry says. “Maybe we should try…”

 

"Harry, I swear if you say I need yoga, I will take your yoga mat and shove it up your arse." Louis says.

 

Harry frowns at him.

 

"I doubt it would fit. Now please, focus."

\--

 

They give up for the day when Louis is responsible for the story of their last anniversary and gets so frustrated with the absurdity of the situation that even Harry decides it must be time for a break.

 

“Only… where are you staying?” Harry asks as they get ready to leave, and Louis looks to Nick.

 

“I mean the article will be in _The Sun_ tomorrow and they will start calling you and it will be a bit weird if you’re open and married and still don’t live together, right?” Harry adds and he is right, Louis knows he is right, he just wishes that he _wasn’t_ right. Nick sighs and Louis sighs, too.

 

“Well, I guess we’re staying at my house, huh?”

 

"We are not staying at your house!" Nick protests.

 

"Why not? Mine is bigger. Nicer.” He thinks about it for a moment and looks Nick in the eyes, before adding: “Fancier."

 

"Yours isn’t even lived in." Nick says, ignoring Louis’ attempts to rile him. Which, _okay_ , he might have a point, because Louis spends most of his time away on tour and staying at others, but it’s still a big house. "And last time I was there it was like a pigsty."

 

"It’s not!" Louis grunts. “That’s unfair, last time you were there it was Harry’s party and it was ages ago and... it’s not a fucking pigsty!”

 

"Is too."

 

"Well your house has an _actual_ pig in it." Louis mutters. Nick glares back at him.

 

"Pig is _not_ a pig."

 

"Not talking about her." Louis says sweetly. Nick throws a shoe at him in response.

 

“Please stop fighting.” Harry begs. “Just… Louis, be the bigger man.”

 

“Difficult to be, given that he is tall as fuck.” Louis mutters and then Harry shoves his elbow in his side. “Fine, fine. Okay, because of your dog, who I don’t want to have to move around houses because she does seem adorable, I will agree to live with you.” he says. Nick looks pleased.

 

“Good. I have a guest room.”

 

Louis is tempted to add that he has _four_ guest rooms but he doesn’t.

 

“Can we swing by my house anyway so I can pick up some stuff?” he sighs.

 

Nick nods.

 

“Yeah, I guess we can.”

 

“Great.” Louis mutters. “Let’s go then.”

 

Harry hugs both of them before they leave. He looks like this is amusing him.

 

 _At least Harry’s having fun,_ Louis thinks.

 

\--

 

“Your pillows are uncomfortable.” Louis is struggling to fluff them up, but it’s not just working for him. Nick rolls his eyes.

 

“You’re such a baby.”

 

“I like great pillows.” Louis defends himself. “Most people do, apart from you, apparently.”

 

“Nothing is _wrong_ with those pillows.” Nick looks ready to rip his hair out and Louis wouldn’t complain if he did. He still thinks Nick’s quiff is far too big and very annoying.

 

“Something is wrong with me being here in the first place.” Louis mutters and Nick looks ready to say something, until Pig gives a little bark, jumping up onto Louis’ bed and starts licking all over his face.

 

“Pig…” Nick warns, trying to frown, but Louis can hear that he is quite fond as he watches the dog. “You can’t do that and you’re not supposed to be in the beds, you know that, girl.”

 

“Let her.” Louis says, because he might not like much of this whole situation, but there is something very adorable about Nick’s dog, and he isn’t sure Nick deserves her. “I don’t mind.”

 

Pig wags her tail and gives a happy bark as if she is very fond of her new roommate, and it makes Louis smile. Nick laughs, patting Pig on the back and shaking his head. His quiff hardly moves, held into place with product and Louis would say something about his stupid hair that can’t even move, except that Pig is pinning him down and there’s something a tiny bit charming about how Nick is when Pig is around. Just a tiny bit.

 

“Do you want some tea before bed?” he asks and Louis nods, half of his face buried by Pig’s incessant licking.

 

“Uhm… yeah. Thank you.”

 

 

 

Nick’s sitting room has a big window with a sprawling view of the garden, which is actually quite nice, though Louis would never admit that it is. He’s curled up under a fluffy blanket sitting in an armchair when Nick gives him his tea.

 

“Thanks.” he says, fingers wrapping around the mug. It’s pale yellow and has a quote on it that’s in Latin, so Louis doesn’t know what it actually says. He wonders if he should ask, but he doesn’t. He just sips the tea and is pleasantly surprised that it’s Yorkshire.

 

“You’re welcome.” Nick mutters, sitting down in the other armchair and crossing his legs. Louis glances over at him. “This sucks.”

 

“Yeah.” Louis says softly. “It really does.”

 

“I can’t believe they actually let us get married.” Nick shakes his head, his stupid quiff still stuck in place. “We were so drunk. They shouldn’t have let us.”

 

Louis nods in agreement.

 

“Our friends are dicks.”

 

“ _Complete_ dicks.”

 

“We should buy new ones.”

 

Nick smirks at that. “I don’t think friendship has a price,” he says with a smile and Louis shrugs.

 

“You never know. Given enough money, you’d be surprised how many of your so-called-friends would gladly talk to the tabloids about all of your best kept secrets.”

 

He says it before he can even think about how very private that was to say, and that maybe he shouldn’t have. His cheeks flush a little, feeling embarrassed and he looks down into his mug of tea.

 

It’s quiet for a while.

 

“Hey.” Nick says softly and Louis looks up again. “I’m sorry that happened to you. It must suck.”

 

“Yeah.” Louis tries to brush it off, worried Nick would ask for more details, but he doesn’t do that. They just stay quiet for a while, until a question that’s been eating at Louis ever since he woke up in that bed with Nick starts circling in his brain again.

 

“Do you… do you think we actually had sex?” he asks, hoping he doesn’t sound too embarrassed. Nick turns red while he considers it, then shakes his head.

 

“No… I don’t think so… I mean we were so drunk, I doubt either of us could get it up, yeah?”

 

“Can you _ever_ get it up old man?” Louis can’t help but dig at Nick, because the situation has become a bit too pleasant for him to feel properly comfortable with it. He does smile, though, and that might be what causes Nick let out a little laugh instead of looking offended.

 

“Oh, you’d be surprised.” he says and Louis finishes his tea.

 

“I don’t plan to find out.” Louis stands up. “Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

 

“Of course, my darling husband,” Nick teases. “Top drawer in the bathroom.”

 

Louis flips him off as he walks upstairs to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

 

Pig is already sleeping in his bed when he gets back to his room. She has stolen the blanket and two pillows. Louis smiles and lets her keep them.

 

\--

 

There is a wet tongue waking Louis up. He grunts, disoriented as he looks up and finds Pig there.

 

“What time is it?” he grumbles, noticing Nick running into the room.

 

“Sorry, sorry, she wants her walk! I’m gonna walk her before work, always do, forgot she was in your room.” He says all of that very quickly. Louis looks over to his phone and he thinks he is going to faint when he sees the time.

 

“It’s four-thirty!” he says, horrified. “Four-thirty, Nick!”

 

“Yeah?” Nick says, fixing Pig’s leash. “I have to be at work at six, you know. I left you my spare keys until we can have some of your own made and there is some breakfast, maybe, I’ll be back by lunch time and…”

 

“It’s… four-thirty…” Louis presses his face against the pillow. “Four-thirty!” he says into it, the sound coming out muffled and less dignified than he would like to sound.

 

“I’m glad to see that you can tell time.” Nick says, too cheerfully for _four-thirty_ in the goddamn morning. “Come on, Piggie girl, let’s go,”

 

Pig licks Louis’ toes and the door closes behind them.

 

Louis would have thrown a pillow at both of them if it weren’t for the fact that it’s _four-thirty._

 

 

 

It hit seven am and Louis can’t fall back to sleep and it’s a fucking tragedy. When he finally accepts that he gets out of bed, goes to pee and then to the kitchen, to find some tea and to deal with his miserable state of being awake. He reads _The Sun_ on his phone, sighing as he sees the article about Nick’s -- his -- wedding and wonders how much shit Nick must be getting about this on his show.

 

He wonders if he should listen to it.

 

He sighs, thinking that if Nick is going to talk about him on live radio that is being heard by a decent number of people, he wants to know what Nick is saying. Besides, they’ve got a story to keep straight, and what if it turns out Grimshaw is a terrible liar? As entertaining as it would be to hear Nick totally screw up on live radio, they had a lot riding on this lie. Probably best to tune it. So Louis fetches his Macbook, and finds the website to listen to the show online and hits play.

 

“… it’s like they know things even before they happen, don’t you think so?” He hears Nick’s voice and god, it’s seven in the morning and he sounds as if he is just as cheery as ever, which definitely shouldn’t be normal. “Like, did _The Sun_ know I was getting married before I did? Probably, huh, ain’t that right Fifi?”

 

Louis listens to Fiona laugh and agree.

 

“Well, Grimmy, we’re all very happy for you.” Fiona says and Louis wonders if Nick’s face is giving anything away to anyone in the studio. “Even if you did hide it from us all. Now, you just have to tell us -- and no, you can’t ignore this question, because you got years to keeping him to yourself -- what made you fall in love with Louis?”

 

Louis bites down hard on his lower lip. They haven’t really talked about this yet. They have talked about _how_ , _when_ and a few dates they will pretend they’ve had, but there was no discussion on _what_ made them fall in love with each other. Mostly because when Harry tried to get them to come up with it, neither of them couldn’t stop offending each other.

 

“Well…” Nick says and Louis’ pulse is rising. They can’t be called out already. He needs to come up with something. “Have you seen Louis Tomlinson, Fifi? He is just quite something, isn’t he?”

 

Fiona seems to agree, but she doesn’t let that be enough.

 

“And what exactly is that something?” she asks and Louis can’t calm his nerves. Nick keeps talking, answering her without pause.

 

“Well, first of all I have never seen such a tiny person be able to take up so much space.” Nick says, and he manages to make his voice sound fond. It gets a laugh out of Fiona and Louis is impressed. “He just makes the whole room shine, doesn’t he? He’s loud and sometimes obnoxious and he’s probably the reason I will go to an early grave, because he drives me insane, but he is also incredibly sweet. He cares passionately about everything and he makes me laugh.” Nick chuckles at that. “And isn’t that the meaning of life? To have a laugh? So how lucky am I, to get to be with someone who always manages to make me laugh.” He laughs again and Fiona lets out a little ‘ _aww_ ’-sound. “And Pig likes him too, and you know that if Pig likes someone, that is a good person.”

 

Louis feels dizzy.

 

“You sound really in love.” Fiona squeals. “It’s adorable, Grimmy. I’m so very, very happy for you. Not happy you hid it from me, but you know.”

 

“I am.” Nick says and his voice is still so very fond. “I am very in love, and very happy.”

 

“But are you Tomlinson or Grimshaw now?” Fiona asks. “We all need to know that.”

 

“We are Grimshaw _hyphen_ Tomlinson.” Nick says and Louis wonders if he came up with that now. “You know, his last name is nice. We don’t want to drop that, do we?”

 

Fiona sighs happily.

 

“You are so cute when you’re loved up, Grimmy.”

 

“All ‘im.” Nick says. “But enough about me, what did you do this weekend, little Fifi?”

Louis’ hand grip so hard around his mug of tea it’s like he is shaking.

 

Nick is very good at this faking thing.

 

Very good.

 

Louis might be sick.

 

\--

 

“No comments.” Louis says, as he tries to get to his car. He’s out buying groceries and he told Alberto not to go with him, because going to buy cereal _should_ be something he could do by himself, but apparently that was a very bad choice and he is flooded with fans and journalists.

“But Mr. Tomlinson, how long have you been wanting to marry Nick Grimshaw?” One woman asks, shoving her recorder in Louis’ face and he’s tempted to smack it out of her hand.

“I said no comments, piss off.” he says before he can stop himself and wow, _great_ , now there will be media about him being rude. He clears his throat. “Really, leave me alone, I just want to enjoy these first days with my husband without having to answer a lot of…”

“There you are, darling, let’s go.”

Louis hears the voice soaring over the rest of the crowd gathering around him, and then he notices Nick, a head taller everyone there, and suddenly Louis is so very happy that Nick is basically a tree. Relief washes over him.

“ _Nick_.” he says before he can stop himself and just saying the name aloud causes chaos in the crowd of fans, and suddenly journalists can’t decide which boy they want a comment from.. Nick’s arm wrap around Louis, securely leading him towards the car and it’s a bit unfair how Nick so easily can get through the crowd when Louis was just… frozen and stuck.

“Did you get the right kind of cereal?” Nick asks.

“Uh… yeah.” Lous says to Nick, unlocking his car doors. He turns back to the fans. “Don’t follow our car, okay?”

The girl closest to him actually nods between taking pictures, and then Nick opens the passenger door, ushering Louis in. He walks around the front of the car, waving a bit to the cameras before climbing into the drivers seat. Louis is about to protest, just now realising that Nick intends to drive his car, but getting away from that mob is a more pressing issue than letting Nick drive his car this one time, so he hands the keys over to Nick. The car starts and Louis leans back in his seat, taking a deep breath.

“I thought I was getting used to this.” He mutters as Nick drives out of the parking lot, navigating up to the freeway and then taking a deep breath himself. “How did you know where I was?”

Nick shrugs. “Lucky guess?”

Louis doesn’t believe him. He stares Nick down.

“Okay, okay, I asked Alberto if he knew and considering the chaos that awaited me when I left work, I figured it wouldn’t be easy for you either, so I figured I should come pick you up. Good thing I did, huh?”

Louis sighs. He wants to say something about how he doesn’t need to be protected and that Nick could have sent Alberto and not come himself, but he is too relieved he got away from that sea of reporters that he doesn’t really have the energy to discuss it.

“Well, we wouldn’t be in this mess if you had the right kind of cereal.” he says after a bit and Nick starts laughing loudly.

“What now? What is so funny?”

“Sorry.” Nick says, still laughing. “I just… it’s quite hilarious that you think it’s a mess that I have the wrong kind of cereal and not that we are actually, you know, accidentally married.”

Louis has to grin at that and with Nick practically howling, Louis starts laughing, too. There are tears in his eyes and he can’t stop, he’s pretty sure it wasn’t _that_ funny, but neither of them had had a proper laugh about just how _stupid_ and hilarious of a situation they’re in.

They’re both out of breath and Louis’ ribs _hurt_ by the time Nick parks outside of their house.

“Idiot.” Louis says as he gets out of the car, but there is still a smile on his lips. Nick grins.

“You married this idiot.”

Louis shakes his head, hair falling in front of his eyes as he carries the bag of groceries inside of the house. Pig comes to greet them, jumping up and down and Nick gets to his knees, hugging her as if he hasn’t seen her for days and not just a couple of hours.

Louis watches them while he puts the cereal in the cupboard.

“Wanna go for a walk?” Nick asks with one of those baby dog voices that usually makes Louis nauseous. _Why can’t people just talk to their animals normal?_ he usually thought, but this time, it’s kinda cute, the way it makes Pig so excited. “Wanna go to the park, huh, girl? Wanna go to the park?”

Pig bounces her paws off Nick’s knees, barking right in his face. A smile crawls across Louis’ lips and he fears for a second that his face might get stuck like that, being around Pig this much. Nick looks up at Louis as Pig licks his cheek.

“You wanna come?”

\--

“I can’t believe there is a park like this in London.” They’re walking through green grass and big trees and there is not a single person but them there. Nick smiles as he notices Louis look around.

“Well, technically it’s a bit outside of London. And Pig loves it here. During weekends it’s crowded, but middle of the day in the weeks, it’s usually quiet. Means she can run around as she wishes.”

Nick bends down to take her leash off, Pig barking happily and as soon as she’s free, she runs off to hunt butterflies or eat grass or whatever it is that dogs do. Louis isn’t really sure. They both watch her for a moment and then Louis glances over at Nick.

“Nick?”

“Mhm?” Nick says, still looking at Pig and not at Louis. Louis clears his throat.

“Uhm… did you mean that… I mean… the thing you said this morning on the radio.” He says awkwardly and wonders why he is even asking this because _of course_ Nick didn’t mean any of it, it’s not as if any of this is real. “I mean the things you said… about me. Us.”

Nick looks at him, smiling a little.

“You were listening?”

“Well you had woken me up awfully early.” Louis says, hoping his voice sounds stable. “I had nothing better to do did I? None of your TV channels show football.”

Pig barks, coming back with a stick that she drops in front of Louis’ feet. He throws it for her to pick up again, still waiting for Nick’s reply.

“Well it was the best I could come up with, I guess.” Nick says and Louis bites his lip. Of course it was. “I mean, when she put me on the spot like that.”

“Yeah. Yeah of course.” Louis says, looking at Pig and Nick nudges his arm.

“What would you say?”

“What?” Louis blinks, confused.

“If they ask what made you fall in love with me. What would you say?” Nick smirks.

Nick is probably just fishing for compliments and Louis isn’t sure why that makes him blush, but he can’t stop.

“I don’t know.” he says after a moment, turning his attention back to Pig. “It’s difficult to come up with a reason to.”

Nick doesn’t say anything.

 

\--

 

“Come in.” Louis says, stepping to the side to invite Liam and Niall through the door. He frowns at a jacket on the floor, sighing as he picks it up. “Sorry ‘bout this, Nick just drops his clothes everywhere when he gets home from work. He’s obnoxious.”

Niall gives Liam a look and Liam nudges his arm back.

“Oh Christ, what?” Louis asks.

“Nothing, mate.” Niall grins. “You’re just like an old married couple, that’s all. Is it even an act?”

Louis smacks Niall across the arm.

“Forget it. This is horrible. Absolutely horrible. I can’t believe I have survived a week. And on my break! Do you know he gets up at four-thirty and asks if I want tea? _At four-thirty_!”

Niall and Liam are both beaming.

“Sorry, bro, but you do sound like you like it.” Liam says and Louis hates both of them, he really should stick to Harry. Harry doesn’t make fun of him this much, anyway.

“I do not like it, I _tolerate_ this because I have to and do you want to play Fifa or not?”

They want to play Fifa. It takes them a while to set everything up on Nick’s TV, but eventully they can start and Louis feels really relaxed. It feels like it’s been forever since he actually had time to just chill back with Niall and Liam and play Fifa, and he has really earned that after this week.

“Where is your hubby, anyway?” Liam asks after he scores another goal and Louis pouts at that.

“He’s out walking Pig, and then they’re meeting Aimee, but he said he would be home for dinner.”

He realises how he must sound a second too late, when Niall mumbles something about a dinner date under his breath.

“God, can you just cut it out already?” He throws a handful of popcorn at him. “Seriously, y’all act as if I wanted this to happen or something.”

“Well, you _did_ marry him.” Liam comments.

“And you act as if this is pretty cosy.” Niall adds. “You _look_ pretty cosy, as well.”

“And you keep track of him, as if he actually is your husband.” Liam chuckles. “Listen mate, all we’re saying is that maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe Nick is good for you. I mean you do have a lot in common.”

“We so do not have a lot in common.” Louis protests. “Guys, there is nothing about Nick Grimshaw that interests me. Nothing! He gets on my nerves, he is so loud all the time, he is just… god, I can’t believe you’re laughing at me. How can you think I actually enjoy this? I thought we were best mates.”

Louis really needs to look it up online if it’s possible to buy new friends anywhere. Maybe he could tweet out an application or something.

“I do not enjoy this.” he repeats, calmly. “Neither of us do. We’re counting down the days until we can finally get that damn divorce.”

“Whatever you say, Tommo.” Liam says.

 

\--

 

“Are you a Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay person?” Nick asks. It’s a bit late to start dinner but he is cooking anyway, and Louis is sitting on the counter watching him. He tilts his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, who is your favourite chef?” Nick asks. He stirs the wooden spoon in the pasta sauce, checking the temperature and looks up to Louis. “I mean, you can’t like both of them so who is your favourite?”

“God, I don’t know.” Louis answers. He jumps down from the counter and gets some plates, starting to set the table. “I don’t really spend much time thinking about that. Is that a thing people do? Pick a favourite of them?”

“Duh.” Nick says, giving Louis an amused look. “It’s something everyone needs to do. Honestly, I think if you apply for citizenship in the UK, one of the questions you should have to answer is who you prefer, Ramsay or Oliver.”

Louis laughs at that. “You’re _such_ an idiot.”

Nick shakes his head. “I can’t believe you don’t have a favourite. Everyone has a favourite.”

“I doubt everyone cares about Ramsay and Oliver.”

“Every single person except you does.”

“Liar.”

“Would I lie to you, dear spouse?” Nick asks, looking appalled and hurt. Louis nods.

“Yes, yes, you would. Actually, I would be surprised if you wouldn’t.”

Nick grins and walks over to him and Louis panics, wondering for a second if he is about to kiss him. They had almost been flirting just then and that what happens when you let your guard down and you accidentally flirt with Nick Grimshaw, he kisses you. Louis tenses up, but Nick doesn’t kiss him, he just reaches for a pan next to Louis.

“Hungry?”

“Very.” Louis nods. “It better be delicious.”

“Oh, believe me it will be.” Nick says with a grin. “Soon the question when applying for citizenship will be Ramsay, Oliver, or Grimshaw.”

Louis gives him a light shove and carries their drinks to the table.

 

\--

 

They share a bottle of wine to the pasta and then go to bed, and Louis isn’t sure if he should blame the wine for the fact that when he just happened to see Nick walking from the bathroom to his room, wearing nothing but a towel, he can’t stop watching.

Louis’ mouth goes a bit dry, but that’s not the worst part, because he can feel his cock hardening in his boxers at the sight of Nick’s chest and arms and _shit_.

He runs into his room so quickly he is pretty sure he could give Usain Bolt a challenge and throws himself on the bed. He tries to breathe normally, make it go away but his hand finds its way down his pants, anyway and he strokes himself, and with quick flicks of his wrist he jerks himself off. When he comes it’s with a grunt and he is not _at all_ thinking about how Nick looked like with nothing but a towel on. Not at all.

He’s not remembering what Nick’s cock looked like in Vegas, either.

“Shit,” he gasps, as he wipes his hand with some tissues, left on the nightstand before he even moved in. “ _Shit_.”

It’s just been a while without any attention. That’s all. That’s all this is.

 

\--

 

The band gives an interview for a morning show and Louis is actually a bit disgusted with how they all want to focus on his marriage and not on the new music they are releasing. He supposes he should be pleased they have backed off asking about Zayn and if they are still friends, but he’s annoyed, having to answer all of this, when he could be talking about the new music. They worked hard on this album. They’re proud of it.

And he is not proud of drunkenly marrying a Radio One host in Vegas. But that makes better press.

“And what did you think when you heard?” The host asks, turning to Liam. “Did you approve of Nick right away?”

“Well, Harry is Nick’s best friend, and he likes the bloke and I always say that if Harry likes someone, you know they’re good.” Liam grins. “And anyway we were all there when they finally got married.”

“Yeah, finally.” Niall adds. “We all had been waiting for them to get married for years.”

“Probably since they got together.” Liam says, and Harry shares a look with Niall. Louis makes a mental note to get that for that later.

“They are truly meant to be. I have always said they would be perfect for each other. They have so much in common.”

The host is beaming and Louis’ cheeks go red. The boys are just loving every second of this torture. It’s not fair that they get to have fun lying about Louis and Louis gets Nick and being woken up too early in the morning.

Thankfully, his anger seems to be misinterpreted as blushing, because the host turns to him, tilting his head.

“Aw, look, blushing just thinking about the hubby, are we? But Louis, we haven’t seen a ring yet. Are you hiding that from us?”

“Uh.” Louis says because _shit_ , they have been doing this for weeks and he hasn’t thought about the fact that he isn’t wearing a ring. “We uh… we only had a temporary one and waiting for… the proper ones to arrive,” he says, giving himself a mental high five for not pausing too long to answer. “You will see the ring soon.”

“It will be amazing, I’m sure,” the host says. “Now, about your new album…”

\--

“I saw your interview.” Nick says, barely waiting to let Louis walk through the door. He’s tired, he has not really had anything to eat and he just wants to sleep for a decade. He looks up at Nick. He’s prepared sandwiches on a tray and Louis lets out a relieved sigh.

“God I love you,” he says, without thinking and half to the sandwiches, half to the person who made them. He grabs one and eats half of it before he realises what he just said. “Uh… I mean… because I was starving.”

Nick’s eye widen a bit. “Uhm, yeah. I… yeah. So, uhm, yeah I saw your interview.”

Louis has already started on another sandwich. “Really? It was crap wasn’t it? Like, ninety percent questions about my love life, seven percent about Harry’s juice diets, and then some questions about our music.”

“Yeah.” Nick agrees, hands digging around in his pockets. “Uhm, but it reminded me about… you know. Rings.”

Louis’ cheeks warm. “You know we don’t have to…” He stops, rolls his lip between his teeth. “I mean this is just fake, isn’t it? Maybe we can make it through these months without actually having to go through the whole… ring thing.”

Nick shakes his head.

“You kind of already put it out there.” He pauses, sighing a little and then fishes out a black box from his jeans. Louis puts the third sandwich down and stares at Nick’s hands, and he isn’t sure why he can’t seem to close his mouth.

Nick opens the box, revealing a ring that is like nothing Louis has ever seen before. He’s never been one for rings, or any kind of jewellery really, but this ring looks _amazing_. He lets out a little squeak at the sight of it. It’s a silver ring, very discreet. Not the kind that Louis thinks about when he hears engagement rings, no big rock but only three tiny diamonds sitting there in the silver, just giving off a bit of a glimmer in the light. Louis can’t stop looking, he really can’t. For some reason it’s just beautiful.

“It’s uh, it was my grandma’s? And she gave it to me saying that when I found the right girl…” He stops, laughing at the thought. “Well, I mean, we all know how it went with that but yeah, when I found the right _person_ I should propose to them using this ring so… I figured it would only… I mean my mum and dad know about this ring so… you should have it.”

He holds the ring out for Louis. Louis can’t take it from him.

“Nick…”

“What?” Nick says, arching an eyebrow at Louis. “Do I need to get down on one knee? Before you accept it?”

“I c… can’t.” Louis stammers. “That ring is… Nick, that ring is beautiful and… this isn’t real. It’d ruin that whole thing, the whole reason you have it, I, I… couldn’t…”

“Listen.” Nick takes two steps forward, taking Louis’ left hand in his and then he slides the ring onto his finger. Louis is surprised with how it actually fits, he can’t believe that it fits and that it looks good on his hand. “I want you to have it, okay? If I’m gonna be able to pretend, it’s going to have to be there and… I want you to have it.”

Louis doesn’t take it off his finger.

 

“I… yeah.” He says and nods again, and he can’t keep his eyes off the ring. It’s stupid. So stupid. “Uhm… thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Nick says and gives him a warm smile. “Want to take Pig for her night walk?”

They walk together out down the streets and Louis watches Pig jump before them and maybe he is staying a bit closer to Nick as they walk but it’s entirely unintentional.

Only 5 months to go.

\--

“Fiona is gonna have a party this weekend.” Nick is removing his coat and Pig runs down the hall to meet him at the door.

“And…” Louis asks from the sofa.

“Well, we are invited.” Nick says, bending down to his knees to hug and let Pig lick all over his face. “Hey girl, hey there my Pig dog, did you miss me? Did you miss daddy?”

Louis rolls his eyes.

“And did you say we would go?” he presses and after what feels like forever Nick finally gets up from the floor and wipes the dog spit off his face.

“Well I think it would be fun, don’t you think so?” he asks, tilting his head. “And I already said we would go you, so now you kind of have to, because if you don’t, it’ll put me in an awkward situation. Please?”

Nick gives him the best set of puppy dog eyes he has ever seen and how is Louis meant to say no to that?

“Fine, fine,” he huffs, throwing a pillow from the sofa at Nick, because the way he starts cheering is just a bit too ridiculous. “We’ll go. Are you sure we can handle this? Friends and alcohol and…”

Nick shrugs. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. My friends are great, they won’t be nosy at all. Promise.”

“Better hope my friends aren’t there then because they are nosy.” He pulls himself up from the sofa, stretching his arms over his head. “Are we going out to for a walk now?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” Nick grins, whistling for Pig. “Come on, Piggie girl!”

\--

“.. and there we were, up on a fucking roof and Tommo decides we should dance on it.” Liam has one arm around Sophia’s waist, one hand holding on to his fifth beer of the night, and he is entertaining the small crowd gathered around him. “I swear, I thought we were going to die. I was like… I was like this is the end… this is the end of One Direction, didn’t I say that Niall?”

Niall says something from the other side of the room and Liam nods.

“Totally thought it was the end of One Direction.” He sips from his beer and points his beer at Louis. “Crazy that one, crazy indeed.”

Louis tips his own beer at Liam and takes a swig. He excuses himself to hunt down Nick, who now most certainly has a death sentence over his head.

“You didn’t say they had invited _my_ friends, too,” he hisses at Nick when he finds him in the corridor, off talking to Pixie about something Louis apparently wasn’t allowed to hear.

“I didn’t know!” he says and runs his fingers over Louis’ arm, as if to comfort him. He seems genuine, at least. “I think Fiona invited Harry and he invited the rest.”

“Or this is just a big conspiracy to have everyone together and laugh at us.” Louis says through his teeth.

“Louis, no. That wouldn’t happen.” Nick paused. “I wouldn’t let it.”

It’s like a curse, those words from Nick’s mouth, because as soon as he says that, a loud cheer comes from the next room and they both walk in to see Fiona on the table, arms in the air.

“Listen, listen up guys!” she calls out over the crowd and everyone stops, staring up at her. She’s got to be drunk already and Louis feels his insides go cold. “We are gathered here today…” She grins, stops to laugh and sip her drink before continuing. “To celebrate, the holy, _holy_ matrimony between two fine men. Nick and Louis.”

She opens her arms towards them, almost spilling half her drink on herself. The whole room erupts with cheers and all eyes are on them. Louis wants to bury his face in Nick’s jacket. Probably should, to make this more believable, but he doesn’t. He wishes he’d had more to drink, but he’s been pacing himself, afraid if he’s too drunk, he’ll say something he shouldn’t say. He regrets that now.

“Believe me when I say,” Fiona is still talking. “that we were all surprised to hear about this at first. But then, it started to make sense to me. Why is Nick always talking about how _pretty_ Louis Tomlinson is? Why am I constantly finding myself in discussions about Louis Tomlinson’s _solos_? Why is there a _picture_ of Louis Tomlinson in our office? And now, ladies and gentlemen, I must say I feel like it all makes sense. Perfect sense and Nick…” She looks to Nick with a fond smile.

“Fifi…” Nick tries to get her attention, but it’s no use. And suddenly, Louis wants to hear more of what she has to say.

“Nick, I am so happy for you.” Fiona beams, looking from Nick to the rest of the room. “And boy, believe me it’s been so much more pleasant to work with Nick this last month. Whatever you’re doing, Louis, please never stop. Thank you Nick, thank you Louis and please…” She finishes her speech. “When you have kids, please let us have a warning. To Louis and Nick!”

“Louis and Nick!” The room is filled with raised glasses and Louis awkwardly smiles, lifting his own glass and finally dares to look at Nick.

“It’s not true.” Nick says. Louis takes a drink.

“What isn’t?”

“There’s not a picture of you in our office.” Nick sounds almost panicked now. “It’s not.”

“Nick, it’s okay, she’s drunk.” Louis says, laying a hand on Nick’s arm, hoping maybe he can calm him down. “People exaggerate…”

“I need a bigger drink,” Nick mutters and he wanders off before Louis can ask if the other things are true.

\--

When they get home Nick still doesn’t seem to want to talk about what happened, and Louis is exhausted.

He falls asleep, having almost forgotten all about Nick talking about him at work before all this happened. Almost.

\--

“You know what the worst thing about this is?” Louis asks as he takes three tablespoons of sugar in his tea. They ran out of sugar cubes and Louis puts off going shopping more than ever after that crowd of paps swarmed him. “I can’t date. It’s been over a month since I dated.”

Nick looks up from his morning paper, looking surprised.

“You mean before this, you actually had people that wanted to date you? You didn’t have to get them drunk in order for them to marry you?”

“Shut up.” Louis sticks his tongue out. “And yes, I’m serious, I miss dating. This is boring. I am young, I should be out enjoying life.” He pouts. “Instead I’m here… and dateless.”

“Sucks to be married, huh?” Nick jokes and Louis rolls his eyes.

“Nick, I’m really serious. This sucks. Don’t you miss dating? You dated that Michael bloke didn’t you?”

Nick shrugs. “Broke it off weeks before Vegas. To be honest I’ve probably gone longer than you without getting any. Dates, that is.”

“It sucks.” Louis pouts into his tea and Nick sets the paper down.

“Are you trying to get me to ask you out on a date or what is this?”

Louis blushes. That wasn’t at all his plan. It _really_ wasn’t.

“No… no. No! I just… pointed out…” he stammers.

Nick lets out a single laugh. “Listen, we’re supposed to be married, so maybe we should just have some fun with it, okay? It’s Saturday, neither of us have to be anywhere, so maybe we should just have a date. We could go to the beach, or out to dinner, or go…”

“To Thorpe Park!”

“Thorpe Park? Really?” Nick groans. “Are we 12?”

“Nick, please?” Louis insists. “It would be fun. Please!”

Nick slumps his shoulders in defeat, but his lip curls just a bit at the corner and Louis feels smug at the victory.

“Fine. Fine, we’ll go to Thorpe Park.”

“Great!” Louis says and stands up, downing the rest of his tea in one go, even though it’s still too hot and it makes his mouth raw. “Let’s go now!”

“Hold on, you impossible child.” Nick says. “We need to find someone who can watch Pig while we’re gone.”

“Call Hazza!” Louis shouts over his shoulder, running upstairs to get changed.

\--

It’s Henry who comes over to watch Pig, and then Louis can’t keep the excited smile off his face during the drive to Thorpe Park. Security is there to help them, and since it’s Saturday and nice weather, it’s very crowded. Louis sticks to Nick, but no one really bothers them.

“You get to skip lines with hundreds of kids in them.” Nick teases as they get to pass through to one of the bigger roller coasters. “Does it make you feel proud?”

“Shut it.” Louis laughs. “Just enjoy the ride, okay?”

“I plan to.” Nick grins suggestively and Louis pushes him over a little, but he’s laughing and enjoying himself.

Nick immediately stops laughing when the ride starts. He’s clearly more scared than he had let on, which can very much be seen in the picture that the ride takes of Nick screaming and Louis is looking at him, laughing. Louis takes the piss out of Nick and buys a copy of the picture.

“I look like crap.” Nick mutters.

Louis likes it, but he doesn’t say that.

\--

“Have you ever thought about how amazing phones are?” Nick asks him. They’re eating candy floss and Louis is trying desperately to not let it get all over the place, but in particular, in his hair.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re so cool.” Nick says, almost a dreamy look on his face. “I mean, you can type a number in and it just knows what friend you want to call and then it does that. Just that! How cool is that?”

Louis can’t believe the words coming out of Nick’s mouth and he laughs.

“God you are really the weirdest, weirdest, _weirdest_ man I have ever met in my life.” he says, and Nick looks almost proud about that.

“Well, think about it!” Nick says, a totally weak defense against Louis’ accusation.

“How about…” Louis looks around. “You think about winning me one of those big bears? Because I want one.”

Nick looks to the joint he is pointing towards, a game that involves throwing darts at balloons and the prize is the biggest stuffed brown bear Louis has ever seen.

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.” Nick shoves the rest of his candy floss into his mouth.

Louis talks Nick into giving it ten tries until he _finally_ wins the bear. Packing into the car to go home, Louis insists on letting it sit up in the backseat, with a seatbelt.

“What?” Louis laughs. “It’s our baby. Don’t you want our baby to be safe?”

Nick groans. “I thought Pig was our baby.”

“Pig is our first born.” Louis corrects him, finished with strapping in the bear. “This is our love child.”

“Our love child?” Nick digs the keys to Louis’ car from his pocket and slides into the driver’s seat.

“Uh-huh.” Louis muses. “Named… Benny.”

“You want us to have a love child named Benny.”

“I think it sounds reasonable.”

Nick starts the car and takes them home.

\--

They get home and Nick heads toward his bedroom. Louis follows behind, lingering a bit outside his doorway.

“What?” Nick asks.

“Well, this was a date.” Louis says, arching an eyebrow. “Don’t all good dates end with a kiss?”

“I suppose.”

“And wasn’t this a good date?”

Nick seems to think about it.

“I guess it was okay.”

“So…” Louis waits and Nick throws his arms up, worn down by Louis yet again, and he presses his lips again Louis’ as if it is the easiest thing in the world. Louis closes his eyes, he only thinks about for a second how he wishes Nick wouldn’t pull away from him so quickly.

“Goodnight Louis.” He mumbles before he pulls away, walking into his bedroom.

If Louis falls asleep and his stomach feeling a bit funny, with the photo of them in the rollercoaster on his bedside table, and holding onto the bear Nick won for him, well, no one needs to know about that.

\--

Louis comes with Nick on a couple of festivals that he goes to with his work, most of them not something Louis would attend if he had a choice, but he does it anyway and actually enjoys it to his own (and to Nick’s) surprise.

Even more to his surprise, it doesn’t even feel weird anymore to have Nick introduce him to people as his husband, or to hold hands when others are watching.

It’s almost a bit too nice, but Louis doesn’t mind that at all.

\--

It’s been a few weeks since Thorpe Park and they’re spending a night in. Nick is busy taking far too long of a shower and Louis is bored out of his mind playing Fifa.

“Do you want to play?” Louis asks, looking up at Nick as he walks out of the bathroom. He is dressed as if he is going out, even though he’s not, because he would have told Louis if he had plans. Louis will never understand how he has the energy to dress like that after a shower, when really he is just about to go to bed. Also, playing Fifa is most of the time extremely fun, but not by yourself and no one else but Nick is here. Nick hesitates.

“That?”

“Yeah…” Louis says with a grin. “No other game on is it? C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“I don’t know how.” Nick says, but he sits down next to Louis, anyway, and pricks up the controller.

“It’s fine, I can teach you. It’s easy really and come on, I don’t want to have to play with Pig, I don’t think she would be able to find all the buttons.” He nods and Nick laughs.

“True. Teach me then.”

He tries. But Nick is terrible.

“… maybe I should have played with Pig.” Louis teases as he scores 15-0 versus Nick’s team.

“Stupid thing, they won’t do as I tell them to. Or you’re cheating.”

Louis gasps, extremely offended. “I am _not_ cheating.”

“You are _so_ cheating.”

“Oh, no.” Louis drops his controller on the floor, jumping on Nick and tickles him without thinking. “You take that back!”

“No!” Nick shrieks with laughter, trying to roll away from Louis. “Louis stop, fucking stop, stop it!”

“Not until you take that back!” Louis is still tickling Nick, who tries to reach for his wrists. “I don’t cheat!”

“Oh yes you do, you do!” Nick snorts, actually _snorts_ , and then he manages to grab Louis’ wrists, both at the same time and Louis hardly fights back when he realises he’s stuck.

“Nooo…” Louis complains and it’s almost too late when he realises just how close the two of them are.

They stop at the same time, both panting in sync and Louis has never been this close to Nick before, he can see every part of his face, and Nick is looking back at him, eyes wandering to his lips and…

Louis kisses him.

He can tell Nick is surprised but then his hand moves from Louis’ wrists to his neck, pulling him closer, so Nick can deepens the kiss. Louis lets out a muffled sound and moves his hands over Nick’s chest, touching the chest hair and not really thinking about what they are doing.

“Nick…”

“Lou.” Nick gasps, and they break the kiss for just a few seconds. “Should we…”

Maybe Nick was about to ask if they should stop, but Louis doesn’t think about that. Louis thinks about how Nick tastes of chocolate and tea and he wants to taste more, so Louis replies to it by getting up, pulling Nick with him.

Clearly Nick has nothing against that when they stumble through the door to Nick’s bedroom.

“This is not…” Louis mumbles as he unbuttons Nick’s shirt. It’s easy, because just like Harry, Nick clearly doesn’t believe in buttoning up your shirts completely. “I mean it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Nothing.” Nick agrees, reaching for Louis with needy, greedy, grabby hands that move over his back down to the curve of his ass, cupping it in his hands and giving it a squeeze. Louis groans.

“It’s just… helping someone out. With a problem.” Louis nods and he has finished working on Nick’s shirt now, throwing it to the floor easily.

“A hard one.” Nick adds and if he weren’t trying to undress Nick as quickly as possible, Louis probably would have rolled his eyes at that.

“Close the door.” Louis mumbles as he is finished unbuttoning Nick’s jeans. “Pig doesn’t need to see this, she’s just a baby.”

“Good idea.” Nick says and pulls away to close the door. Once he hears it click shut, Louis drags him over to the bed and tackles him onto it.

“Want to prove that you can get it up huh?” Louis smirks as he straddles him, taking his own shirt off.

Nick looks like he’s up to the challenge. “Want to see if you can handle me?”

“I can handle anything.” Louis grins and he bends down, kissing Nick sloppily as he grinds against him and god, Nick is hard and big and Louis’ hasn’t gotten anything in _months_ and he wants him so badly.

Nick seems to be on the same track because he reaches between their bodies, struggling to get rid of the rest of their clothes and Louis kind of gets impressed with how easy it is for him to get both of them naked. In no time he finds himself with all the clothes on the floor and now nothing covering up Nick’s huge cock.

And god, he is so hard.

“Fuck.” He breathes out, reaching out for Nick to touch him, he just need to touch him and he wraps his hand around it and it’s almost difficult because he is _so_ big and for a moment Louis is worried this will seriously hurt, but that thought disappears because he really, _really_ wants this. “Do you have lube?”

Nick nods, pointing to the drawer next to his bed.

“In there. Condoms, too.”

Louis nods, reaching for it and finds the lube without much difficulty and tosses it to Nick before he flops down on the bed next to him, spreading his legs for Nick.

“Come on,” he whines, wishing he didn’t sound so desperate but god, it has been a long while. “Do it.”

Nick chuckles at Louis’ eagerness and if Louis weren’t so incredibly horny he would tell him to piss off and find someone else to hook up with, but he is unfortunately, desperately horny and he needs it now.

Maybe he even needs Nick. But now isn’t the time for that thought.

Instead, he focuses on the way Nick lubes up his fingers, he does it slow, teasingly and they are so long and Louis lets out a little purring sound just at the thought of soon having those fingers inside him. He spreads his legs even more as Nick hovers over him, pressing their lips together again in a somewhat slower kiss, but still sloppy and needy with probably way too much tongue.

Louis gasps as he feels Nick’s finger circling his rim, and he grinds down against it, needing it inside.

“Come _on_ ,” he complains and wraps his arms around Nick’s neck. “I’m not a goddamn virgin, come on. Need you inside, hurry.”

Nick chuckles again and then slides one finger inside and god, Louis closes his eyes and sees stars because fuck, finally he is getting something. He loses the ability to speak when Nick starts using another finger and then starts fucking into him slowly with long fingers, scissoring them and taking his time and opening him up and Louis is a sobbing mess underneath him.

He wishes he could say something witty, wishes he could say anything really, but all he can do is moan and now and then give him the occasional ‘ _more_ ’ as he grinds his hips down, rolling them, doing everything to get Nick’s fingers even deeper.

By the third finger, Nick has managed to find his prostate and he pushes against it a couple of more times, causing Louis’ moans to break in his throat and he is close now, close already and that is not happening, it’s really not bloody happening that the first time he has sex with Nick Grimshaw. He won’t come before Nick even gets his cock in him, no fucking way. He forces himself to close his eyes, trying to think of unsexy things and then gasps again.

“Nick… Nick come on… come on babe…”

Nick smirks at the ‘babe’, but Louis doesn’t care because he is far too busy with getting a condom out, tearing the wrapper open with his teeth and reaching for Nick. Nick moves closer, straddling Louis’ hips so that Louis can out to reach to roll it on and Louis looks up at him as he does. Nick’s lips are half parted and his eyes closed as Louis works the condom down over his length, and he looks as if just this is pleasure enough and Louis can’t help but feel smug.

He is making Nick feel good, just as good as he feels.

Nick moves away from him, and Louis rolls over on his stomach before getting on all fours.

“Come on,” he murmurs, looking back at Nick, who is stroking himself to make sure the condom is on properly and that he is fully hard. “I haven’t got all night, Grimshaw.”

“So eager.” Nick _tsks_ , but he presses the tip against Louis’ entrance. Louis holds his breath, bracing himself to feel him enter him but it doesn’t come. He glares back and Nick is still grinning. “Sure you want it?”

“Nick, come on.” Louis complains. “This is seriously no time for teasing get the fuck on with it I --”

He is stopped by Nick sliding inside him, he doesn’t go slow, he bottoms out in one go and the sensation as he does sets Louis’ whole body on fire and he lets all of the air out of his lungs, sinking down into the bed as Nick’s hands go on each side of his face. He kisses all over Louis’ neck, staying still.

“Good like this?” Nick purrs. “Like it when my cock is buried in you?”

“Nick, _fuck_.” Louis gasps and clenches around him hard because god, dirty talk with Nick Grimshaw is hotter than it should be. “Fuck me, you bastard, just fuck me.”

Nick furrows his eyebrows and starts fucking Louis. He does it hard, with rhythm, pinning Louis down against the mattress and he finds his prostate each time and he is so big, Louis wonders how he ever went this long without trying this, wonders how any of them managed to go this long without having sex.

Louis whimpers, trying to hide it by muffling his face against a pillow but it doesn’t work because his whimpers are just too loud and they seem to spur Nick on, only making him go faster, and harder, gripping Louis’ hips and Louis hopes there will be marks left in the morning.

“You feel amazing.” Nick says, voice thick and low. For a moment the only sound in the room was their skin slapping together. “So fucking good, Louis.”

“Fuck.” Louis cries out and his cock is leaking on the sheets and he needs to come, and he probably will come soon and it will be the first time ever he comes from just this, usually he needs to get a hand on him. “I’m c-close Nick, god, kiss me.”

Nick slides out of him, Louis whimpering with the sudden emptiness, but Nick is only rolling him over to get him face to face, and he slides inside again as he kisses Louis hard.

“Gonna come for me?” Nick whispers and keeps their foreheads pressed together. He is sweaty and smells of sex and Louis is sure he does, too. He nods,unable to form words.

“Y-yes, I…”

“You can.” Nick purrs. “You can come for me princess, come on.”

The nickname throws Louis over the edge and he comes with a cry, his cock pressed between their bodies and his whole body trembles as in spasms as he does, and he clenches around Nick, causing the other to groan, pressing his face against Louis’ neck.

He pushes himself deeper inside before Louis can feel it and Nick is coming, too, dick pulsating deep inside Louis in what feels like it’s going on forever.

Louis wraps his arms and legs around Nick, holding him steady as he comes, making sure he is close.

“Don’t pull out,” he begs, kissing Nick again between each word. “Don’t pull out.”

Nick just breathes hard, sweat dripping from his hair onto Louis, but he stays inside him until it starts feeling sore and Louis’ legs get tired. He sinks into the mattress as Nick carefully slides out of him, tying up the condom and tossing it in the bin next to the bed and collapsing next to Louis in bed.

“Want to go back to your bed now?” Nick mumbles as he presses a kiss to Louis’ shoulder. Louis doesn’t even bother replying to that.

\--

Louis uses the ‘ _it’s just to help out a friend’_ -excuse next morning when he gets on his knees for Nick in the kitchen before Nick has to go to work, leaving Nick flustered and late as he gets to the studio, which he texts Louis about after Louis has crawled back into Nick’s bed. It makes Louis smile smugly to himself before he sends a picture of himself in bed with the caption ‘ ** _night night x’_** before he turns his phone off.

\--

It’s as if they both get experts at it, coming up with excuses for hooking up whenever they have the chance, and it’s not until one night when Nick comes home from working with _The X Factor_ and gives Louis a kiss where he is sitting and reading this book Liam recommended to him, that Louis starts wondering what the _fuck_ is going on here.

He doesn’t say anything though, because Nick tastes of cinnamon and coffee and it’s nice to kiss him, so Louis just pulls him closer, returning the kiss and his book drop to the floor. Nick gets on top of him on the sofa, and Louis ends up riding him right there.

 _After all_ , Louis thinks, as he habitually crawls into Nick’s bed, _it’s not as if it’s going to last forever_. There’s only two months left of this now, and then he will be out of it, so maybe he really doesn’t need to think about why he falls to sleep so easily with Nick spooning him every night.

\--

Louis smiles at a text Nick sent him of Pig chewing on one of Nick’s fancier shoes. The band is away for rehearsing and song writing, and it’s the first time Louis is away for more than a couple of days since they started this madness.

It almost feels a bit sad.

**_“Look what my dog is doing! you are a bad influence : ( x”_ **

Nick’s text says, and Louis can’t help but laugh as he replies.

**_“She’s a much better dog now. :) And she loves me more x”_ **

“Oooh, I saw that.” Liam says over Louis’ shoulder. Louis wishes he didn’t get so red.

“Saw what?” he asks, but Niall and Harry are staring at him and laughing. Liam has a shit-eating grin plastered to his face.

“I think you have a bit of a crush on Grimmy, mate. You have a cute little smile on your face whenever he texts you. I didn’t know!”

“What?” Louis narrows his eyes at Liam. “I don’t have a crush. I’m smiling because Pig is eating Nick’s shoes. Look.”

He shows his phone with the picture to stop the argument.

“Look? Just Pig.” he says, very pleased.

“Mhm, and what is the ‘ _love you’_ text above that?” Harry prods.

Louis blushes harder, noticing the text now. It’s from yesterday when Louis offended Nick and Nick sent back a ‘ ** _love you x’_** , you just couldn’t see his text before that one.

“It’s just a joke!” he defends himself. “Honestly, guys, you are being ridiculous. You know this marriage was just a mistake, right? It’s not real and we don’t have feelings for each other. We just try to make the best out of this crappy situation you know. To be honest I wish I could go out and get drunk.” He paused, considering what he’d be doing right then, if he didn’t have Nick or Pig or any of this going on. “Maybe hook up with random strangers, but nope, I can’t.”

“Because you’re in _loooove_.” Niall teases and Louis can’t believe this.

“Guys when will you give this a rest? You are the worst. Seriously, get back to work.” He says grumpily, and then gets up, walking into the other room and slams the door shut next to him. “Impossible.”

\--

“I can’t stand being here.” Louis complains loudly into the phone. “Come get me.”

Nick laughs on the other end.

“Louis, no, I am not picking you up.”

“But they are being _impossible_.” Louis pouts. “They have this weird idea that we are in love and they keep making fun of me and I want to go home. They’re dumb, I want new friends now.”

“I’m sorry sweetie.” Ne says but Louis doesn’t think that he sounds all that sorry. “I guess this is what happens when you choose to be a popstar. Tough luck.”

“How’s Pig?” Louis asks, wanting something else to talk about. “Does she miss me?”

“Yeah, she’s whining about you from morning until night.” Nick says dramatically. “No, not really, I think she is okay because Pixie gave her a new toy, but you know, I’m sure she misses you.”

They’re quiet for a moment.

“Do you?” Louis asks before he can stop himself and god, he is such an idiot. “Miss me?”

Nick is silent and Louis wonders if maybe he actually hung up on him but then Nick clears his throat.

“I guess so. A little. I mean, bed’s empty and all.”

“I’m back tomorrow.” Louis says. “And you should have tea prepared for me.”

Nick laughs and it’s a comfort. A small one. But still.

“Okay, love. Sleep okay, tell the guys to fuck off if they bother you and we’ll see each other tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.” Louis breathes out. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Louis turns his phone off, feeling cold, even if it’s warm outside, even if it’s the middle of October and it shouldn’t be, especially not down by the lake where he’s resting, but he didn’t want to be up with the others.

“Is this seat taken?”

Louis looks up at Harry, suddenly terrified that maybe he heard.

“Uh… no.”

Harry sits down, crossing his long legs and looks up at the moon. Louis is watching the way it reflects in the lake.

“You know…” Harry says, still looking at the moon, “sometimes people surprise you, yeah?”

“What do you mean?” Louis says, not meaning to sound hostile, but he knows where this is going. Maybe Harry heard him.

“Louis, do you remember when we met Grimmy the first time? That interview and when you did that interview with him on his show?”

Louis shrugs. “Yeah, so what? It was ages ago.”

Harry looks back out at the lake. He rests his elbows on his knees, tucks his chin over his arms.

“What changed?” he asks quietly. “When did you decide that you couldn’t stand him? You always seemed to have fun around each other.”

“Maybe when he started to offend me and piss me off and… god Harry, I don’t know, why are you asking me all of this?”

“I meant what I said, before.” Harry says. Louis wonders how he can always be so calm, speak so slowly. “You know, that interview where we talked about your marriage? I do think you two are perfect for each other. He’s better with you. You might even be better with him, if you pulled your head out of your arse.”

“Don’t.” Louis interrupts. “Don’t do this, Haz. There was nothing involved in that wedding other than too much vodka and friends who should have told us no.”

Harry bites his lip. “I heard you on the phone, Lou.”

“ _So?_ ” Louis stands up so fast he almost trips. “You say that to me all the time. Are you in love with me? Is Liam in love with me? Niall? You can love people and it can be platonic. Shit, Harry, I love pizza, you gonna tell me to marry that next?”

Harry tries again. “You’re sitting here and calling Nick, and you are playing with the ring he gave you and telling him that you love him.”

Louis immediately stops fingering on the ring. He hadn’t even been aware he was doing it.

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Louis…”

“No, I won’t sit here and listen to this.” Louis feels his heart beat in panic. He starts heading back to their rental cabin, words still rolling off his tongue. “Because Nick Grimshaw doesn’t love me, and I don’t love him. We have one month left and then this will be over and I will be free again and you know what?” He’s yelling, at Harry, at that fucking moon, at anyone who will listen. “I can’t fucking wait, Styles.”

\--

“Did you have fun?” Nick asks.

“No.” Louis shakes his head and sits down next to Nick on the sofa. He takes a deep breath. “They just won’t leave me alone.”

Louis leans against him and Nick wraps his arms around him.

“About what?”

“About us of course.” Louis says, so very frustrated. “They seem to think we love each other and that we can make this work and… that we can just stay married or something, as if we… as if we’re in love!”

Nick is quiet for a moment. Louis moves closer to him.

“Well… are they so wrong?” Nick says quietly. Louis tenses, but don’t pull away.

“What… what do you mean?”

“Louis.” Nick says and he looks at him now. “We say ‘I love you’ more than a few times a day. You mean that, don’t you? We… sleep in the same bed, we kiss, we have sex, we… go for walks with Pig and…”

Louis pulls away and the look on Nick’s face hurts him.

“Well, yeah I love you but… that doesn’t mean we can just stay _married_.” Louis says, panicking. “Nick it was a mistake and we…”

“Maybe it was a mistake turned good.” Nick reaches out toward Louis, but seems to think better of it. “Maybe it was supposed to…”

“Don’t.” Louis whispers. “Don’t say it’s meant to happen. Don’t be like Harry.”

Nick looks him dead in the eyes. “Do you have feelings for me Louis?”

Louis whimpers. He is feeling more afraid than ever and he isn’t sure what to do.

“I don’t know,” he says finally, anxiety pouring out through his words. “Nick I… I can’t…”

“Because I have feelings for you.” Nick says. “Like when I told Fifi what made me fall in love with you that first day? Turned out it was kind of true. Maybe it didn’t happen then, but it happened. I fell in love with you.”

“Nick…” Louis chokes on his name.

“And I know you feel something for me.” Nick changes his mind again and grabs hold of Louis’ hand. “Louis, I know it, you just… what is it you like about me? What is it that makes you call me and say you love me and want to come back to me even when you are with your friends? Something has changed.”

“Nick, please, don’t make me do this, Nick I can’t…” _Fuck._ He’s crying now, and his words are heavy like lead.

“Why are you so afraid?” Nick stands up. “Is it because this is good? Because it _works_? Is that why you need to run away from me? Louis we have something good here!”

Louis cries. He doesn’t know what else to do.

“Nick, I don’t… I don’t know if…”

“Well, figure it the fuck out.” Nick ets go of his hand and stands. “Because in a few weeks this will be over unless you do something. I won’t wait around for you Louis. I just won’t do that, okay?”

“Nick, I…”

“You don’t have to be like this.” Nick says. “Just give me a chance, give us a chance, a real one, I…”

“What if this is a mistake all of it and we’re just… What if I’m _not_ in love with you, what if you’re not…”

Nick stares at him.

“You think these months have been a mistake?” he asks, and Louis can hear Pig trotting down the hall. He can’t look at Nick’s face.

“I…”

“You think I am wrong about my feelings for you?”

“I don’t…”

“And you don’t know if you like me?”

“ _Nick._ ” Louis begs him to stop, can’t handle all of his insecurities laid out so simply and so incredulously.

“Well, that’s an answer.” Nick mutters and then before Louis can realise anything, he is out of the door.

“Nick, there is a storm!” he yells hopelessly at the door. Nick is already gone. “Fuck.”

He wipes his eyes and Pig comes out from the other room. She sits down on the middle of the rug, looking at Louis and tilting her head. Louis sniffles.

“What do you want?”

Pig barks. She looks from the door and then to Louis. Louis sniffles again.

“Nick went out. He left.”

Pig barks again. Louis find himself annoyed with her for the first time ever.

“What do you want me to do?” He cries out. “I can’t do anything, I…”

Pig barks again and then she jumps up from where she is sitting, and she runs over to maybe get to Louis, maybe just get to her toy, Louis isn’t sure. He watches her though, wag her tail and then she makes another little jump, knocking over the coffee table Nick has that Louis has always said is far too insecure for a table but that Nick keeps there anyway.

“Pig” Louis mutters and walks over as Pig happily runs around, starting to pick up all the things falling off. “Careful, girl.”

He wipes his eyes and then Pig barks, and Louis notices something he didn’t see before on this table. He sobs as Pig barks again, apparently it doesn’t bother her how everything just fell apart. (not just the coffee table, maybe Louis means himself too but then again he wants to believe Pig would care about that.)

“What is this?” Louis says, picking it up. His heart drops as he sees it.

It’s the photo of them at Thorpe Park, the one he bought with the frame and that he has kept in his room since then. Nick is looking so afraid, he looks dumb actually but Louis is looking at him and Louis knows that he looks very fond, and he knows that this is not how he looks at just anybody. He can’t believe Nick has moved it out here, to the living room and Louis didn’t even notice. It was just so normal to have a framed picture of him and Nick that _he didn’t even notice it_.  He lets out another sob and wipes his nose, looking at Pig.

“What kind of Disney dog are you?” he says with half a laugh, half a sob. Pig barks.

“Do you think I should go after him?”

Pig barks again.

Louis takes that as a yes, and he grabs his jacket and runs after Nick.

\--

It’s raining -- not even London rain, it’s raining like the worst kind of weather Louis has _ever_ experienced in his whole life. He’s terrified he won’t be able to find Nick in this weather, but he looks down the street and sees the only other person who is stupid enough to be out in weather like this and there is no one else that tall and that dumb.

“Nick!” he yells, trying to be heard over the rain and run after him. “Nick, please, stop!”

Nick stops dead in his tracks and he turns around. Louis runs until he catches up o Nick, runs until his feet and lungs ache. The rain is falling over them like a heavy shower. Louis’ clothes stick to his body; he’s already soaking wet.

“I know it now.” Louis yells, half desperation and half so Nick can hear him over the storm. His tears mixes with the rain as if he is in a stupid romantic movie and he hates that he’s in this situation, hates that Nick put him in this stupid situation because why couldn’t he just stay inside, why did he have to go running out in the rain like an _idiot?_ “I know now,” he repeats and hopes that maybe, for once, Nick will get it.

“Know what?” Nick snaps and his stupid quiff is glued to the side of his face, too wet to stand up. Louis would laugh about it, if this were any other day. “That this wasn’t worth it? That we were just a mistake? You told me that already.”

Louis’ breath hitches in his chest. His lungs ache and he’s exhausted.

“I know what made me fall in love with you.” Nick’s expression softens, Louis thinks so anyway but it’s difficult to see through the rain. “I know everything.”

Nick takes a step closer; he doesn’t say anything.

“It’s the way you look at me when you think I don’t noticing.” Louis spills, words flowing off his lips like rainwater. “The way you think the best of me even when I really don’t deserve to be thought the best of. The way you hold me when I feel like I am going to fall apart and the way you make me laugh. Your eyes when you’re laughing and because you’re warm and kind and you care about your friends and you love your dog more than anything…” He’s shaking, his whole body shivering from the rain and anxiety. “And because you like me for me, even if I was such a dick to you, you still gave me a chance and you… suck at football but you still play with me to make me happy and..” He chokes on his words, a sob balling in his throat. “I fucking fell in love with you and I didn’t mean to and _look_ at me.” He looks up at Nick and suddenly realises how close Nick is now, and the rain is only getting worse. “I am chasing you through the rain just to tell you that I love you and hoping that maybe you could give me a chance to make this right because god, Nick, I fell in love with you, with everything about you and --”

Nick kisses him. Louis can taste his own tears on Nick’s lips, but his arms wrap around Nick’s neck so quickly it’s like a reflex and Nick pulls him closer, lifting him up and Louis wraps his legs around his waist to be able to fully be close to him.

“God, _Louis_.” Nick says, their lips still connected and his voice quite muffled but Louis can hear every word, he can hear every single word he is saying. “You’re such a bloody idiot.”

“I know.” Louis says, wishing he could stop crying but he can’t. “I know, I’m an idiot. Please forgive me. Please. I want this, I want us, for real, not just for play, I want it for us I was just scared, I…”

Nick kisses him again. Maybe to shut him up, Louis isn’t sure.

“I want it, too.” Nick whispers, his hand brushing Louis’ wet hair out of his face as they look at each other. “I want it all. That’s why I said that, why I wanted the chance. I want it all, Louis.”

“All of it.” Louis whispers.

When they kiss again as the rain stops, but Louis doesn’t notice.

\--

Louis wakes up with Nick’s arms wrapped around him and his lips pressed against his neck. He looks down to their hands where they are entwined and he can see the glimmering of the rings there.

He hears Pig scratching at the door, whimpering a little when she can’t open it and Louis smiles, glancing over at Nick who still looks very much asleep.

“Nick?” he mumbles, nudging him gently. “Nick, your dog wants to go for a walk.”

“My dog?” Nick murmurs and presses a sleepy kiss to Louis’ shoulder. “When I’m sleepy, she is _your_ dog.”

Louis can’t help but chuckle. He tickles Nick’s side.

“Niiick… wake up,” he says, dragging out the syllables and Nick grunts, blinking a few times before opening his eyes. He smiles.

“Hello. Are you in the right bed?”

Louis swats at him with a pillow. Nick yelps, which puts Pig in a frenzy on the other side of the door, now that she knows that they are awake and _rude_ enough to ignore her. Nick smiles and Louis smiles back.

“Yes,” Louis nods and leans in for a kiss. “I am in the right bed, actually.”

Nick smiles against his lips when they kiss and Louis closes his eyes.

It’s going to be a good day.

 

**_3 years later._ **

 

“Remind me again why we are taking our _2 year old_ to football practice.” Nick says, watching the little one tumble around out on the field. The other toddlers look about the same, not very balanced on their feet but the proud smile on Louis’ face is enough to make Nick think this is worth it.

“Because.” Louis says. “It’s important to start early. Besides, Peyton loves it. She’s going to be a star, I just know it.”

“Mhm.” Nick nods. Peyton has just started looking at flowers on the ground together with a boy her age. “Really?”

“Well…” Louis says, frowning as he notices Peyton isn’t really looking like she cares about the ball, and more about the flowers. “Sometimes… sometimes it takes time to become a star. We have to give her time.”

“Maybe she doesn’t _want_ to become a football player.” Nick suggests with a smirk. Louis glares.

“What else would she be?”

“Maybe she wants to be a radio DJ!” Nick says with a grin. “Like her dad!”

Louis rolls his eyes.

“Please. It’s _way_ too early to decide that for her.”

Nick huffs, raising his arms in protest.

“You just brought her to football practice!”

“That is _different_.” Louis says, nose in the air.

“Remind me again why I married you.”

“Because you’re in love with me, crazy about me, and can’t imagine a life without me.” Louis muses. Nick laughs and wraps an arm around his waist, pulling him closer as he rests his head on top of Louis’.

“Mmm, maybe.”

“At least that’s why I married you.” Louis says with a fond smile, glancing up at Nick as Peyton comes running to them.

“Daddy! Daddy!” She wails and runs up to Louis who lifts her up in his arms. “The ball tried to eat me!”

“Did it now?” Louis asks over Nick’s laughter. He frowns.

“Yeah, I see it. Proper football star.” He teases. Louis glares at him, stroking Peyton’s hair.

“You just have to give it time sometimes,” he says. Nick kisses the side of his face and that’s all the agreement he needs.

Sometimes all you need is to give it time.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> babygotstyles @ tumblr and twitter, come talk to me about tshaw


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